Was the money therefore wasted or were the weapons possibly the reason that New York Harbor remained safe?
To examine this issue, have students review Reading 2. Then have them decide which of the two Congressmen they agree with and write a short essay in which they explain why. Make sure they discuss alternatives to defense spending. Then have the class discuss their answers, or hold a debate between the two sides. Activity 2: Protecting Coastal America New York City was not the only harbor that needed to be defended. As the list in the footnote at the end of Reading 1 points out, the Endicott Report believed 26 other ports needed better defenses. (If students don’t recognize some of the places, point out that modern ships were heavier and needed deeper channels. Some 19th-century ports declined in importance because their harbors were too shallow.) Divide the class into teams of four or five, and have each group choose one of the 26 cities to defend. Each group should research the history of the port and draw up a plan, using the Endicott System of defense, that shows how they would have
